The photo to the left shows the restored L-Head back on the chassis ready for a test run. A little gasoline in a quart jar was all we needed.

The sound of that newly rebuilt flat-head four was music to my ears!

Body Work:

As shown on the first photo album page, my tub was a total loss! There was no choice other than a new tub. Glen Sanders did a great job saving my hood, grill, and windshield frame. A new MD JUAN steel replacement tub was ordered, and within a couple weeks I had a "jeep in a crate"... sort of!

The following pictures highlight some of the steps in restoring the body. NOTE: If you get a new tub for your Willys, plan on spending a lot of time aligning, measuring, shimming, re-aligning, drilling, and so on. Remember to measure and measure again to be sure you have it right! Check the new tub for all of the missing hardware. It will be a shame to find out the gas tank brackets have to be welded on... after you just painted everything!

Thanks to Bob Westerman for giving me some of the key measurements for various parts placement. With a wooden floor in my original tub, there were no holes to use as a reference, and many parts had just rusted away!

The new tub arrives! I was very impressed with the overall quality and accuracy of this reproduction tub. It was accurate to within fractions of an inch!

Glen works on getting the proper placement of the seats before I take them back home to finish restoring them.

The photo to the right shows the classic 7 slot grill! After the holes from those big ugly surface mounted running lights were welded, they were skim coated with Bondo. Some final sanding and it will be ready for a fresh coat of primer.

A fresh coat of Dodge "Viper Yellow" has these restored parts looking like new! (Yes, I know they are a lot brighter than the original "Michigan Yellow", but I saved this Jeep and I picked the color I wanted!)

The new tub gets painted and clear coated. Man that's bright! While Glen worked on the painting in his shop, I worked on restoring the seats and more of the small parts in my garage at home.

After sandblasting, my original high-back rear seat was primed and painted black along with the 2 front seats. I ordered well made, original style seat covers from Beachwood Canvas and installed them at home with original style hardware. These were a perfect fit and surprisingly easy to install with a little time and patience!(See more on Beachwood Canvas on the Tops & Seats Page!)

Original rear seats are hard to find in most of the early CJ2A's and 3A's. I was lucky to have my original high-back survive in restorable condition!